NFL fines Ed Reed $55,000

The good news for Ravens safety Ed Reed is that he wasn’t suspended for a hit on Giants receiver Victor Cruz, as the team feared he could be. The bad news is that the hit was costly.

Reed was fined $55,000 by the NFL for that hit, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reports.

Last month, the NFL handed Reed a one-game suspension for an illegal hit, which the league office said was the third time Reed had committed an illegal blow to an opposing player’s head. But Reed appealed that suspension and won, with his punishment being reduced to a $50,000 fine.

This time, the NFL apparently decided not to try for a suspension for Reed’s hit on Cruz in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game. But this time the fine is even more costly.

As costly as it is, however, a $55,000 fine is a lot better than a suspension. And despite another illegal hit, Reed has avoided a suspension.

For what? He hit him with his shoulder in Cruz’s chest! So, it’s now illegal to hit people legally? I have no horse in the matter, I’m a Bills fan. All I seen was a great hit that jarred the ball loose! Even the announcers said it. What a joke.

Ed Reed is not going to stop laying out receivers. He is old school. The NFL has changed and Ed Reed is holding onto “the good old days” when giving a receiver a concussion got you a highlight on ESPN and a nice bonus from the team. Now, you still get on ESPN but it costs $50 Gs…

Looking forward to Reed’s retirement, when the ravens make their inevitable early exit. Great player who is at the age where he’s always hurt, who’s lost his speed and is doing it on guts and savy alone(like Polomalu) and the way he plays the game(admirable though it may be) has passed him by.

Iam a GIANTS fan the hit was clean (shoulder) and at a slow rate of speed, football has become over litigated just like everything else ! 55 large for a shoulder to upper body hit ,,what is going on,,, is there fiscal cliff in the nfl ?

Steeler fans who will be sitting on the couch watching Ravens in the playoffs for the 5th consecutive year while their team is already booking tee times due to their “elite” QB blowing back to back games single handedly… Lol thanks for the trolling fellas! Keep talking about how many rings your team has and ill keep reminding you how terrible they are NOW.

so the guy catches the ball right in front of reed, who(reed) then uses a textbook tackle with his shoulder between the numbers and he gets fined for it because the back judge who was thirty feet away throws a flag while neither ref near the play throws a flag??? this league is getting to be a joke! they seen intent on blaming the players for the lack of good referrees. and any who want to criticize reed, watch the replay before you take shots.

Que the steeler fans and their juvenile hatred. You have to admit that we all agree the NFL is going to lose fans with going after defenders who still play defense. Perhaps if Ed “swept the leg” and took out Cruz’s acl there would be peace on earth and Ed would have 55 large in his wallet for the strip club this weekend. Pathetic.

Funny to see all the steeler fans whine as they watch the Ravens for the 5th consecutive trip to the playoffs while the Steelers’ “elite” qb threw two picks that ended any chances of that pathetic team going anywhere

Keep talking about how many rings your team has and ill keep reminding you how terrible they are NOW.

———————————————————-

Seems more important to the worst fans in sports(ravens fans) that the steelers lose. What have the ravens won in the last 11 yrs? Where do you think they’re going this year? Great, backed into the playoffs. Watch what happens next(not a steelers fan).

Steeler fan here, who dislikes the Ravens: first off, that was a clean hit. Secondly, a $55K fine is just too freaking high even if it was out of line – which it wasn’t. Goodell is a power-mad fool ruining the game.

Funny to see all the steeler fans whine as they watch the Ravens for the 5th consecutive trip to the playoffs while the Steelers’ “elite” qb threw two picks that ended any chances of that pathetic team going anywhere
———————————

Right? You should be happy the Steelers didn’t make it in this year. They’d just start their 3rd string, 38 yr old QB again and expose the Ravens for what they really are. Pretenders. Keep hoping and enjoy that one and done.

All you chumps need to watch the replay before you take a shot at Reed. The replay clearly shows Cruz catching the ball, and then lowering his head and to embrace the contact. By doing this action, Cruz lowered his helmet position by 4-6 inches which then causes Reeds shoulder to make contact Cruz’s chin.

Basically this was a “bang bang” type of play or hit. For those are that actually played (you actually started) high school football know how hard it is to adjust and re-position your body when going all out and making a tackle on the offensive player. At the NFL level with the insane amount of speed that is on the field, i can only imagine how difficult it is for the defenders to make these twitch like adjustments while trying to tackle or hit someone.

There was clearly no intent with Reed aiming for his helmet and he was actually tackling with his shoulder first and not with his head. If Cruz did not lower his head to embrace the contact, we would not be talking about this stupid fine.

My thoughts on the all of he unnecessary fines from the NFL: SLAP THE FLAGS ON THE BOYS AND CALL IT DAY.

gadzod says:
Dec 27, 2012 8:11 PM
For what? He hit him with his shoulder in Cruz’s chest! So, it’s now illegal to hit people legally? I have no horse in the matter, I’m a Bills fan. All I seen was a great hit that jarred the ball loose! Even the announcers said it. What a joke.
———————————————————

Sorry, but HAD to thumbs down this comment. “I have no horse in the matter”? What does that even mean? If you’re going to use a cliche, man, then please get it right! (By the way, it’s “I have no horse in the race”).

Oooohhh, someone made a good, clean, HARD hit on a player. The Great Roger Goodell Himself Live And In Person thinks that warrants a fine.

The hitter was Ed Reed. That increases the fine.

He hit a Giant. That warrants a really huge fine.

Good God, the man made a clean hit with his SHOULDER and hit the receiver in the CHEST. WHAT THE HE** WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO? Get written permission to tap him on the shoulder, say, “pretty please with sugar on top, may I tackle you?”, then breathe heavily in the hope that Cruz would fall down?

Giant fan here. There was a absolutely nothing wrong with that hit. After this weekend, I’m done watching this wretched product. I’m not even calling it football anymore. Soccer will be gaining one new fan.

Yeah, its only his 4th illegal hit in the last 2 years. His second of the season where he was already let out of a suspension. He deserved a suspension the first time, and a 4 game suspension this time. He just doesnt learn. So if you fine him and he goes out and cripples someone, i hope that player sues the hell out of the league. Player saftey….what a joke!

But, if theyre going to fine him, affirming the (bad) call on the field, how can they not give him a suspension? He was suspended for his 3rd such hit in a certain period of time, but when he gets his 4th one he gets just a fine? Makes no sense

The NFL is going to continue to get worse until the owners fire Goodell.
I do have an idea about how to fix most of the illegal hits, have the league make the defenders go back to tackling and quit the Hitting. What ever happened to “wrap him up” these guys are blocking the guy with the ball instead of tackling him.

So he gets fined $55,000 for something that is part of the game. But if he would have lost his mind after the flag was thrown and turned around and berated the ref (something KIDS are taught not to do), he would have only been fined $21,000. Makes sense.

As a very devoted Steelers fan that decidedly hates everything purple I must say this story disgusts me. Looked like textbook football to me. That was a good hit no matter who laid it out. Seems that the NFL needs a new poster child every year and this time they’re picking on Ed Reed. makes it hard to enjoy the game sometimes.

funny how these steelers fans say Ed is a dirty player when they had the dirtiest guy in the league… Hines vagina Ward. also it’s a shame that the NFLs making money on perfectly legal hits. It’s a surprise that chancellor hasn’t been fined yet.

@pantsfreezone… If you have watched less than a quarter of the games available then WTF are you doing on this website? Probaseballtalk is around the corner!!! Clean hit or not NFL is KING!!! Im sure baseball could use more followers!!!

I’m so tired of idiots saying another early exit for the ravens. In the last four years the ravens are the only team to win playoff game and twice make if the afc championship. There is never an early exit for the ravens. Please know what you are talking about before you post.

This hit should be textbook,,,he led with his shoulder & drilled Cruz right in the chest. THe chance of either player being injured in that type of collision is very low….plus he drilled the guy so its good for the fans – you know, it sells ! Merton Hanks is a hypocrite & Goodell is fraudulent

Steeler fans who will be sitting on the couch watching Ravens in the playoffs for the 5th consecutive year while their team is already booking tee times due to their “elite” QB blowing back to back games single handedly… Lol thanks for the trolling fellas! Keep talking about how many rings your team has and ill keep reminding you how terrible they are NOW………………………………………………………………………………………………
hey man how many times ur team even been to the big dance and id rather not make it than to watch my team choke when there so close so laugh on that punk ravens are as old if not older than the steelers at least no murderers on our team

It’s unfortunate that you aren’t smart enough to see that this is what Harrison was talking about when he said aiming for the knees.

Reed only hit Cruz in the head because Cruz LOWERED his head. Reed’s target zone was exactly where it should have been.

James Harrison has had the exact same thing happen to him (but unfortunately for him, he hits too hard). So, in order to avoid what has happened to Reed, Harrison said he has to lower his target SO low that he is essentially aiming at the knees.

You’re just not smart enough to realize that was the point he was making, and you took it to mean that he was trying to take out knees.

In reality, he was just saying that it’s impossible to know where the head is going to be, so he MUST aim for 2 feet above the ground.

This whole deal is ridiculous. Ed’s made some pretty vicious hits this year, but nearly every one has been clean. Even the hit on Deion Branch in the Pats game was only to the head because Branch ducked. Every other tackle was shoulder first and to the chest! How can they find it acceptable to fine these players after having the ability to watch the replays time and time again! It blows my mind. Every year it gets harder to make an impact on defense.

Good thing jack tatum and jack lambert dont play in this era they would have retired owing the nfl money……..sarcasim.

Ok in reality it seems to me these flags and fines are coming off pure reputation RE:reed harrison. no matter how these guys try to clean it up there still getting the flags.I’ve always respected the way the ravens have played good hard nosed football but the nfl is really turning into a joke all i can say is just keep pushing forward and maybe someday lord roger will get ousted.

I’m a Cincinnati Bengals fans, and a NFL fan, but this is not right, this was a shoulder to the chest, nothing dirty about the play. NFL you are hurting the game. You have to sit down, and look it this in the off-season.

Yeah I’m a Raven “hater” but even I’d say this hit was clean. Same kind of hit Reggie Nelson put on Dez Bryant and was flagged but wasn’t fined or anything because the league saw it as a clean, legal hit. This is messed up.

How many times do replays show the offensive player duck into the hit? At full speed , the defensive player commits to try to hit the offensive player in the chest area, and ends up hitting him high because the offensive player ducked into it. Seems to me that the NFL doesn’t really look at the film closely enough. I don’t want anyone from any team to get hurt, but hitting and getting hit are part of the game.

The NFL has stated that they are not taking intent into consideration, so it does not matter if Reed intended to make contact or not. The NFL has shown that they do not take the receiver moving into the contact zone into consideration when fining. The NFL has shown that they are going to provide additional protection to the “Super Stars” (read: offensive stat producers) as well. The NFL needs someone at all times to wag a finger at about, “player safety” while the concussion lawsuit is going on.

Was the hit clean? Yeah, mostly. Cruz dipped his chin in and a little contact was made there, though. And the NFL is going to drop the hammer on it every time to show that they “care about players” and are trying to “change the game”. You can’t fine Reed less than the last time you fined him for the “same thing” even though the last one warranted the fine and this one didn’t. At least they didn’t attempt to pursue another suspension that would definitely be overturned.

eric670 stated:
hey man how many times ur team even been to the big dance and id rather not make it than to watch my team choke when there so close so laugh on that punk ravens are as old if not older than the steelers at least no murderers on our team

Dear Eric,

I’m so sorry but you are quite incorrect. The Steelers were created in 1933. The Ravens were created in 1996. You’re off by 63 years.

Further more if you observe the highlight you can clearly see that the hit was shoulder to chest however it did brush Cruz’s chin slightly. There was no “helmet to helmet” contact and therefore a legal hit. And one that should not be penalized by a fine let alone a flag.

Your comment regarding “murderers” must refer to Ray Lewis’ legal battle from some years ago. The murder charges were dropped when the prosecution realized their “evidence” was somewhat lacking and therefore he is not a “murderer”. He plead guilty to a charge of Obstruction of Justice which is a misdemeanor and therefore he is not even a criminal in this case.

Thank you for your post. But in the future please keep them to yourself if all you can say is lies.